[Sussex] Recent Click online comments

[nik]

If you get a chance to watch this weeks Click online then please take a 
moment to write to the producers. Ive been watching click online and I 
have noticed that in many respects their "informative" show is quite 
biased towards percieved popularism in operating systems. Recently they 
previewed MS and Apples announcements of their 64bit oss' with MS 
showing off transparent windows etc etc etc. So microsoft so 
uninnovative. Anyway heres my recent posting to click online ...



--- extract of click online email ---
Whilst your getting innudated with many many emails saying "linux for 
the desktop is simply not there" I offer you this thought:

Try the following ,over the telephone, as a technical support excerise.  
Between an end user and a support technician trained in their operating 
system.

1. Change the resolution of the Desktop from 640x480 to   800x600

2. Enable a wireless network card to connect to a base station whose 
SSID is hidden and is using 128bit wep.

3. Connect to the internet via a Network card via a router.

4. Find a file recently edited on the computer.


Your Target Operating systems are Windows XP Home, Knoppix 3.8 and Tiger.

In the last 15 years that I have provided technical support, the Windows 
environment has retarded the ability of the technical support assistant, 
where command line and text files never did. Since most end users  do 
not find the above tasks "easy" in any operating system id suggest no 
desktop system is actually there.

Ive been watching click online for a while now and I would have to say 
that you seem quite reticent , or unaware, to look at the unix/linux 
world when talking and comparing technology releases and history.

The Sussex Linux user group has for several months now,  attended the 
Worthing British Computer Fair.  Where it sells the Knoppix distribution 
on CD, to many visitors.   On average we sell 15 cds in a day and find 
after a few months visitors are returning to enquire how to install the 
distribution on their PCs. Id invite a researcher from Click online to 
attend for the day and see what the public ( and hobbyists ) think about it.

--

Nicholas Butler